Swithing from Groove

[gstepic]

Once again Microsoft abandons a good music service. I have been using Groove music and just received a notification that it will be discontinued. There will be some sort of partnership with Spotfly. I saw where Groove subscribers can get a 60 day free trial but I can't seem to get any free trial. I signed up for the free Spotfly service several years ago and never used it. I cannot find anyway to contact Spotfly for any trail period and it appears my only option is to upgrade to premium and payment starts right away. Since my subscribtion to Groove ends Novermber 3rd I do not want to double pay for October, how do I get a free trial?

Also, can we purchase music from Spotfly? I saw at one time you could and then you couldn't. I don't understand why this has to be this complicated in order to buy music.

[Jon_UK · Accepted solution]

Hey Gstepic,

It's unfortunate about Groove! From Microsoft's end, it might be worth reading through all this re:transition. To clarify the answer to your question this is a statement from Microsoft:

I already redeemed a different free Spotify Premium offer. Can I combine that with the 60-day Premium offer for Music Pass subscribers?

No. You can only sign up for a free Premium offer once in Spotify, so if you already subscribe to Spotify Premium or Spotify Unlimited or you’ve redeemed a free trial offer, you’re ineligible for this offer. Prepaid cards or Spotify gift cards can’t be used as payment for this offer.

Spotify music purchases were a thing once upon a time, however they rescinded this a while ago. When there;s a missing album, I tend to buy the MP3's elsewhere and then link them into Spotify manually (see link). That said 99% of the stuff I listen to exists on Spotify, although I realise this won't be the case for everyone. 

I hope that help

Best, Jon

[Maxim]

Hey!

We also have an FAQ recently published on the Community here: https://community.spotify.com/t5/Desktop-Linux-Windows-Web-Player/Spotify-coming-to-Groove-Music-Pas...

🙂

[gstepic]

Thank you for the reply. I don't remember doing any trial but i must have at some point. I buy the music I like and use streaming services to explore music, I have a very high quality portable music player (iBasso DX200) that has an android app so maybe I can stream music to it. I already have Amazon prime but I do like the higher quality option of Spotfly. 

[Jon_UK]

You're most welcome and I hope you enjoy Spotify! Most of the Spotify library (on Premium) is @ 320Kb, and although not lossless it's flippin' good. That said, it looks like lossless music might be in the works.

[gstepic]

Quality music is a big deal to me. Before I commit to Spotfly I am going to give Google Play and Apple a good hard look. If I had the ability to purchase music directly from Spotfly then it would probably be a no brainer because of the higher quality files. I have been puchasing music from the Microsoft store. From time to time I buy lossless files from HDtracks. I am now wondering if there is more music available purchasing from Google or Apple and what quality are the files. I assume pricing would be the same as Microsoft store pricing for albums and/or songs. 

[gstepic]

I was able to get a 90 day free trial for Apple Music and Groove Play. I really want to like the Google service but when exploring genres jazz and classical are not an option! When chatting with a google rep he said it is most likely temporary as their goal is to get those genres up to some sort of world standards, whatever the h that means! What I like about Google is you can buy the music from the same page where I can stream it. The bit rate of downloaded music is 320 which is why I prefer Google over Apple as the Apple bit rate is 256. For Apple I have to go to the store tab to buy the music. 

So right now Spotfly would be my third choice, maybe second over Apple, assuming Google will bring back the jazz and classical category when exploring music.. I am guessing I can use another email account and perhaps still get a free trial with Spotfly. Music selection can win me over. I saw on a post sonewhere that Spotfly can be buggy, hope that was an old post because Rhapsody a few years back totally put me off because of so many bugs.  Higher quality music files can be a huge factor in the future. I have a very high quality music player, iBasso DX200, that has an android interace so if I can figure out how to get Spotfly to work that would be another plus for Spotfly providing I can download the music and listen at 320 bit rate. The ability to purchase from Spotfly would be wonderful if that ever happens again but I guess I can go to Google, Apple, or Micrisoft to buy music. 

I am debating about how much I want to purchase from HDtracks. They are a little more pricey and some albums I got from them were of disappointing quality. I would appreciate any suggestions on other music sources if I want to buy the music.

[user-removed]

I tried to switch from Groove to Spotify.  I was actually excited to try Spotify--until I tried Spotify.  No UWP.  No access to OneDrive files (where Groove encouraged us to store music).  The Spotify UI is unspeakably bad--more about serving ads than music.  The algorithm that suggests music is the worst I've experienced--again, more about promoting tracks thathave undoubtedly paid a promotional fee than about serving customers tastes.  A host of other problems, too.  I'm going old school and just buying the tracks I want from Amazon, getting the files and storing them myself on my device. Enough of being treated like cattle.